Fresh Ideas

Archive for October, 2008

What are your favorite horror flicks of all time? Because Halloween is right around the corner, might as well get this ball rolling for you. Please post yours in your comment.

Here is my own list:

The Others

The Sixth Sense

Hostel

The Thing

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Wrong Turn

If I remember other horror movie that escaped my mind, I’ll post a comment on it.

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Halloween in the Philippines is celebrated in the eve of All Saint’s Day, which we all know is October 31. Some of us celebrate and some of us don’t. People who celebrate either go to party on clubs or have their own version of trick or treat. Almost all clubs and restaurants in the metro have their own design for their Halloween treat for customers. Some are spooky and some are just like costume party theme.

I think I should no further explain what is this holiday about, but for all of you concerned, this Halloween original name is All Hallows’ Even and it is an ancient Celtic festival that Irish immigrants in the U.S. brought in the nineteenth century.

In ancient times, Gaels, the ethnic group of Ireland believed that the date Halloween was celebrated, October 31, dissolves the boundary between the living and the dead and the dead is very dangerous during this day, and usually damages crops and causes sickness. This occasion was celebrated with a festival that includes bonfire and costumes with some jack-o’-lanterns, which is a carved pumpkin that resembles a face with candle inside of it and was used to frightened off superstitions.

Halloween for children now are celebrated with trick or treat activities and they usually go to other houses in their villages or subdivisions with costumes and ask for some treats from homeowners just like the usual trick or treat in the U.S. or any other country. Actually, Halloween is an adaptation of the same occasion in the U.S.

Now, watching horror movies in very usual in this date. Some just go to their departed relatives in the cemetery just to be early in the All Saint’s Day rush the next morning.

Some are also taking advantage of this holiday to go out for vacation and many go to their respective provinces to visit their loved ones and their departed ones. However, this year will be a little different because in the previous years where All Saint’s and All Soul’s day was set in weekdays, now in 2008 these holidays are in weekends; therefore there are no special movement of holidays and there will be no long weekend for some of us working.

Travelling in the provinces will be minimal because of the limited days of holidays, which this year is only 2 days considering that this is one of the major holiday that our countrymen go out and meet again long lost relatives and family members in far-flung provinces.

Just like any other holidays in the Philippines, it usually takes time in the preparations. Advertisements runs for weeks, some took months, like in Halloween, as early as September, some are already prep for this occasion. Would you believe it that the Philippines is the only country that has the longest Christmas season in the world. People started preparing for Christmas as early as the “Ber” months begin, meaning September until December. And it does not end there, it usually took until late January and sometimes until early February, and then another occasion will coincide which is Valentines. It is a great season for love and a really great season to burn your wallet and pocket!

Well, for me because I don’t visit anymore my relatives in the province and I only visit my departed loved ones in the metro’s cemetery, then I spare myself of the hassle in waiting in the long line in the bus companies or ship’s pier.

I think I’m going the wrong way, as for the topic’s concern, but hey this is my blog so just try to keep on reading hehehe!

So, for me, I would rather celebrate Halloween with my significant other, partying or just go to a nice resto and spend the night away, spooking each other!

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There are some speculations, but some analysts said that commodity stocks are the next huge thing in the money market. Maybe not as of this moment but by being patient and buying it now, you may not yet feel any rising, but in the next 6, 9 or 12 months things will surely step up.

As you well know, sell-off has been in a free fall now for commodity stocks. If you will buy now for less the price and just buckle up and accept the pain of the losses in the following months, you may understand what these financial analysts are saying. Things will really pull off, and when it do, you will surely see the return of investment.

Actually, growing demand for commodities in rising economies like China, India, Brazil and the Middle East are still going up.

The demand for commodities on developed countries are in declined now and their economies are slowing down.

The problem now is with the supply and not with the demand. The issue on the global capital crisis that lead to problem in lending has dried up for smaller players. Yes, indeed these companies like the ones from the oil industry need capital to fuel them up in supplying the countries demand, and without these supplies, demand will not sufficed.

Also, one issue now is the falling oil prices. And this will really hurt the production and exploration of oil companies because it will not be profitable for them to continue producing if they will only sell it half the price than it should be.

The current crisis will surely make the supply and demand gap grow tremendously.

If you will just analyze this, if you will buy these commodity stocks now, time will come when the demand will rise again in the developed countries together with the current demand on developing countries, and with the very tight supplies now because of limited capital for production, there will be big returns in these stocks.

The real test here is if you can stand from the storm. The return of the investment is for long term, maybe 1 or 2 years from now. It’s just a matter of time, and you’ll need to have lots of patience to weather things down.

And if you agree with me, this is the right statement from Warren Buffet for what is happening now, “buy fear and sell greed”.

I received another email update from our company and I just paste it below so that you may read the whole article.

The Department of Health (DOH) released yesterday, October 24, 2008 the last batch of milk and milk-based products that were tested by Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). BFAD cleared all 32 products of the kidney-stone causing melamine.

During the entire stretch of the BFAD laboratory testing, a total of 204 milk and milk by-products had been examined for the presence of melamine.

The last batch of melamine-free food products include:

- Captor Classic Lollipop
- Cham Hoopie Milk Flavor Candy (Special)
- Columbia’s Chocquik Instant Choco Malt Drink, 80g & 300g
- Dairy America Skimmed Milk Processed/Spray processed (repacked)
- Dongguan Mayong Guang Feng Biscuit
- Golden Haosheng Candy
- Good Taste Strong Candy (Assorted Flavors)
- Harden Foods Milkshake Candy (Assorted Flavors)
- Harvey Lacto Strength Milk (Assorted Flavors)
- Le Tian You Ice Candy
- Liantong Biscuit with Chocolate Coated
- Meihua Fusion OHI Chocolate Cookies w/ Filling
- Meiji Clack Chocolate Bar
- Meiji Hi Milk Chocolate Bar
- Miramar Confectionery Nougat Candy
- Candies (Prosperity Flower) (MM)
- Cindera Toffee Roll Candy (MM)
- Really Savory Candy (MM)
- Soft Candy (MM)
- Yamyam Circle Pebble Candy (MM)
- Nicefoods Whis O Ring Candy
- Nutri-Express 15 Nutritional Elements (Colored Orange Cap and Label)
- Nutri-Express 15 Nutritional Elements (Colored Red Cap and Label)
- Pioneer Skimmed Milk Powder (repacked)
- Qualify Food Coffee Candy
- Sweet Dart Coffee Milk Candy
- Sweet Dart Milky Milk Candy
- Wanfu Foods Coffee Mail Tea Cookies Biscuits (yellow wrapper)
- Wanttone Orange Egg Rolls
- Want-Want Hot Kid Milk Candy (I * Milky & Chewy)
- Want-Want Sen Rei Rice Crackers
- Yalilai Olympic Star Candies Beijing 2008 free of the chemical substance

Meanwhile, the products found to have traces of melamine are:

- JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk (more calcium & Vitamin D) 1 Liter,

- Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk

- Mengniu Drink

- Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit

- Lotte B+W Koala biscuit

- Lotte Chocolate snack Koala Biscuit

For more information, you may visit http://www.gmanews.tv/story/129187/DOH-clears-last-batch-of-Chinese-milk-products.

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The heat is on!

The U.S. presidential election is nearing. The time is ticking. Its time to hit the polls in November 4, 2008 for the American voting population.

According to the latest New York Times/CBS poll, Democratic Party Barack Obama led 13-points over Republican’s John McCain among voters by 53% - 39%.

This will be the first time in U.S. history that two senators are running against each other, Barack Obama for Illinois John McCain for Arizona and also it is the first time that an African-American is running for the presidency for a major party. Another first time is a woman running for the vice-presidential bid from the Republican party; which is Governor from Alaska Sarah Palin.

Actually, I didn’t follow the campaign news much and I am not that knowledgeable about this matter. I just tried to read what I could when interesting things pop out in the news about the campaign.

I always wanted to write something about the U.S. presidential elections but nothing relevant came to my mind because of so much information regarding the campaign and debates and everything that is going on.

All I can tell you is this race will be tight. It will be fierce. So watch out for some updates.

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Would this spark interest in you? New Oil discovery in Palawan. I heard this in the news and I cannot believe my eyes that the Philippines actually has oil reserves.

According to the news, the Department Of Energy (DOE) confirmed that there is a potential in petroleum extraction in West Palawan and the Sulu Sea region.

Petroleum exploration in West Palawan began in the ‘60s and the company Nido Philippines started drilling in 1976.

Last September 23, 2008, the Australian-based Nido Petroleum Ltd. announced that it made the discovery of oil in the Yakal-1 and Tindalo-1 wells, and this as you well know, are additional discoveries in the Philippines after 14 years.

The combined oil reserve in the two wells is estimated at around 18 million barrels.

There are other discoveries like natural gas already in the Philippines. In September 2001, Shell began pumping natural gas at the Malampaya Gas Field, which is located 80 km off the coast of Palawan.

I hope that we can be self sufficient in oil so that we will not have problems anymore when the price of crude oil in the market increases and therefore ease the suffering of our motorists and public utility drivers in the never ending oil price hike.

Actually, this is one good news that I am proudly want to hear about. But then again, I do hope that the Philippines and the citizen will reap the rewards and not only the foreign investors that started it.

One breakthrough in science that I am excited to witness is the announcement of Carbon Sciences on transforming CO2 or Carbon Dioxide into Fuel.

This is one discovery that can really help ease our problem with global warming, not to mention the problem of every nation in regards to the ever rising prices of fossil fuel.

According to reports, 28 billion metric tons of CO2 is being released into the atmosphere each year, and this development can greatly help in our drive to help conserve our depleting natural resources, preventing ridiculous price hike for fossil fuel because of increased demand and low supply and of course to prevent further damage to our atmosphere and global warming.

This new technology will make use of inexpensive, renewable biomolecules to act as catalyst in the transformation of CO2 into basic hydrocarbon building blocks, and in turn can be used as basic fuel for different kinds of machines that uses it.

It is great to know that this process will close the carbon loop and recycling emissions.

What do you think will be the opinion of the big oil players about this discovery? If this will be implemented, this will surely fire a big blow in the oil industry.

You may check out Carbon Sciences website for more information about the process.

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If you wanted to check out some trendy home ideas for your house renovation or simply buy a new furniture or appliances, this site is a good guide for you. I will not hesitate to promote and recommend this because one of the owners is my good friend.

Depot Home is the first product-specific home shopping guide reference of its kind, highlighting products from various vendors and manufacturers directly into the very hands of eager, style conscious consumers and construction professionals.

Depot Home, the essential product guide for the Filipino abode is a quarterly glossy magazine that features a unique magalog format which combines a magazine’s helpful tips, stylish ideas and inspiring images with the user-friendly ease of a product catalog.

Sections include topics that range from helpful hints to design trends that aim to inform and inspire readers to beautify their personal space.

The Inspiration Board showcases items that ignite the design sense of the season. To Do List gives a roundup of the hottest design-related things to do, read, eat, see, shop, etc.

Home Buzz features home furniture and accessories worth talking about (not to mention, worth buying!).

Design Finds offers unique, functional and fabulous finds that match the theme and/or color palette of the issue.

Design Trends keep readers up-to-date with the latest design trends. Practical and stylish solutions to readers’ design dilemmas can be found in Q & A.

Shopping Trip explores the county’s best local design sources.

Homes display beautiful house and design tips from the homeowners.

For great ideas and simple guides for home improvement, there is How-To.

My Favorite Things showcases a celebrity/designer or style icon and his or her favorite design related-things.

Depot Home is truly the homeowners’ essential product guide.

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Sony has announced at the Liepzig Games Convention that it will release its updated version of the PSP, which is the PSP 3000. Actually, this gadget is now available in Europe and was launched last October 15 for $291.

The main feature of this unit was the improved screen with no glare and it has a built-in mic.

There is no much difference between the PSP 2000 and 3000 except for the improvement in the screen which is much brighter and more vivid than before. However, both units weren’t playable under direct sunlight, but you can see the significant improvement in the 3000.

The side was also more rounder and the UMD cover at the back was redesigned.

Well, for me it’s a good improvement on the old one, but only minor details were added and if you still have the old and preferred the newer version, I guess you should wait a little while and Sony might release a much better unit.

Information from some sources that the price tag is $199.99 in the US for the PSP 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack. It comes with PSP-3000, 4G Memory Stick PRO Duo and a PLAYSTATION Network Voucher.

There is also no information yet if this version will be released in the Philippines in the near future.

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Japan is now going bananas about a diet craze that left the market with banana shortage! Yes, you seen it right, bananas!

This diet hits Japan like a storm and believe it or not, the country is experiencing banana shortage because of this fad diet. Japanese girls are now obsessed with this experimental diet after the testimonial of a popular actress who lose 26 pounds.

Actually, the Morning Banana Diet is very simple. All you need to do is to take bananas as your breakfast together with only water. after that, just take your normal lunch and dinner. It is okay to eat your snacks as long as you don’t eat desserts after meals and sleep before midnight.

It’s funny that there is a scarcity in bananas in Japan, wherein fact, we have tons of it in our market here in the Philippines. According to some sources, we are banana exporter in Japan for 40 years already and this is the first time that they experienced this kind of craze about this fruit.

Well, we hope that this will boost our export more in Japan and will further give extra jobs to our fellowmen. Our local businessmen can surely benefit from this fad until it last.

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